20 Business Excellence Awards 2020
The Silicon Review
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a problem known to affect a child’s nervous system, growth, and development. This disorder often shows up during the first three years of a child’s life. Some children with autism seem to be in their own world, and they are also not interested in other children and lack social awareness. Children with autism will have problems communicating with others, and they might develop speech much later than other children. The development of social skills is also less because the child might not be able to understand the emotions or facial expressions of other people. The experts do not know the cause of ASD, but they have an idea that certain genes may cause it. Children with ASD might have problems in their brain structure or with some chemicals present in the brain. Symptoms of ASD are slightly different for each child, and some of the commonly known symptoms are behavior symptoms, social symptoms, and communication symptoms. There is no particular medical test to diagnose ASD, but healthcare professionals use certain guidelines to diagnose ASD before age 2. According to the guidelines, children must be screened for ASD before age two so that they can be treated right away.
Center for Social Dynamics (CSD) is a state-of-the-art facility offering specialized assessment and treatment services to meet the developmental needs of the whole child. Its multidisciplinary team, incorporating behavior analysis, occupational, speech, and psychological therapies, is committed to providing individualized and cutting-edge diagnostic and therapy services. CSD was founded in 2012 and it is based in Alameda, California. CSD’s Mission is to enable every individual to reach his or her full potential by providing programs that will develop new skills and concepts to maximize their ability to learn within their natural environments and to empower families by providing supportive coaching and behavior management.
In conversation with Pete Pallarés, Founder and CEO of Center for Social Dynamics
Q. Whom do you give credit for your business success? Why?
The success has always been driven by our group of talented clinicians (all levels!) and administrators through these past seven years, and indirectly, these guys have pushed me to improve myself year after year. The adaptation to newer and more efficient ways to deliver care and constant innovation… Telehealth is a good example of it.
Q. Explain your company’s successful journey till date.
The success CSD has had since its inception has three strong components
Q. Explain your healthcare services in brief.
In our space, it is as simple as the group of professionals that provide care for individuals diagnosed with autism. This group of professionals is centered on making health care accessible, high quality, and, most importantly, patient-centered in your communities.
Q. Do you provide tailor-made healthcare solutions or do you have one fit-for-all solution?
All services we provide are tailor-made…meaning, all treatment plans are individualized to each patient and based on a set of treatment targets and plans to help manage their symptoms.
Q. What motivated you to develop a dedicated healthcare platform evolving child and parent needs?
You are talking to someone that was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, so I guess the motivation to help children who learn differently from the rest has always been there since day 1, in terms of Healthcare, that came in more recent times when legislation put us there in 2012 and gave us finally an industry. I firmly believe that you don’t choose your passions, passions choose you!!
Q. There are many supportive therapies for autism, but is it curable?
Autism is not curable that we know of, but we can put together strong programs and treatments that can manage the symptoms very well so that this particular diagnosis is characterized by.
Q. Effective caregiving is not easy. Do you have highly-qualified individuals who can help you give your best?
Yes! We take a lot of pride in recruiting and training some of the best. Our high-level clinical group also undergoes tough educational programs and supervision hours to get their licenses and certifications.
Q. How do you market your services?
We don’t market ourselves. We work with health plans that already know the quality of our work and refer patients to us. The investment in marketing these past 6-7 years has been more to recruit clinicians and advertise positions as well as opportunities to be part of the CSD family.
Q. Are there any new services launching anytime soon?
Yes! Great that you are taking me here… Through this awful time we are going through with Covid, we launched our Telehealth platform in March and have been a very important and successful transition in our services. We have been leading current trends of care through technology, and making sure all families have the option of proper care via distance care in telehealth has been a must for us.
Meet the leader behind the success of Center for Social Dynamics
Pete Pallarés is the Founder and CEO of Center for Social Dynamics. After near 25 years in Autism services helping big organizations like Kaiser Permanente and Easter Seals provide care and help them scale their operations Pete Pallares founded the Center for Social Dynamics, in 2012. Pete was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain and made the bay area his home in the mid-90s. He is very passionate about helping individuals with Autism as well as his involvement with civil rights and social justice causes.